Marshall, NC State set home-and-home football series

HUNTINGTON — The just-announced home-and-home football series between Marshall and North Carolina State involves a few connections.

Coach Doc Holliday worked in Raleigh as an assistant for Chuck Amato from 2000-04. MU athletic director Mike Hamrick didn’t work there, but he did work down U.S. 264 at East Carolina, a frequent football rival of the Wolfpack.

Even MU’s athletic director for media relations, Jason Corriher, is an N.C. State man who worked in the sports information department for two years there after his 2000 graduation.

So it was natural that the two schools struck a scheduling agreement for later this decade. The teams will meet Sept. 9, 2017 at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, then play on Sept. 22, 2018 in Huntington.

It’s the first time the Herd has struck a home-and-home deal with a current Atlantic Coast Conference team. New ACC member Louisville is still due to come to MU on Sept. 24, 2016, but the Cardinals were a member of the old Big East when Marshall beat them in 2011 at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium.

“North Carolina State is a very good opponent for us," Hamrick said, “and it's an exciting matchup for our football program and for our fans. Our Herd followers will be enthused about the proximity of the game at State, and will welcome the Wolfpack as a quality attraction here at Edwards Stadium.”

The 2017 game gives the Herd its third of possibly four nonconference games, with the other two (Miami of Ohio, Kent State) coming to Huntington. The 2018 game in the first home game on MU’s early slate.

How Marshall’s future nonconference schedules look:

2015 — (full) Purdue, at Ohio, at Kent State, Norfolk State

2016 — Akron, Louisville

2017 — Miami (Ohio), at North Carolina State, Kent State

2018 — at Miami (Ohio), North Carolina State

2019 — Ohio

2020 — at East Carolina, at Ohio

2021 — at Navy, East Carolina

2022 — Navy

Reach Doug Smock at dougsmock@wvgazette.com, 304-348-5130 or follow him at twitter.com/dougsmock.